What A Guy - Boss Pays Millions Into Bonus Pool From Own Pocket

Bloomberg reports that Guy Hands, founder of Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., said he personally funded $30m of bonuses at his private equity firm last year, and will do the same again this year.

'You want your deal-doers to really be aligned, and clearly if the deal-doer does not feel that alignment that is not good', he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Cristina Alesci. 'That is the reason why I have put ($30m) of my own money in providing a bonus pool for last year, and will do a similar bonus pool this year'.

Hands lost about 30% of a $7.2bn fund he raised in 2007 on a $6.05bn buyout of U.K. music giant EMI Group Ltd. that failed. The loss pushed the fund’s return to a negative 19% annually as of September 30th, according to the Oregon state pension fund.

While Hands has dropped efforts to raise a successor fund, he is continuing to invest. In November, he acquired Annington Homes Ltd., a provider of army housing, for $4.84bn.